


Loyalty

by bukkunkun



Series: The Player's Adventures in Offland [4]
Category: OFF (Game), OFF (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Betrayal, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Loss of Trust, Other, and a lot of other heartbreaking stuff, yes writing this made me cry omfg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-02
Updated: 2013-05-02
Packaged: 2017-12-10 04:47:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/781954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bukkunkun/pseuds/bukkunkun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two endings, two different outcomes.</p><p>The Player must only choose one of the two, after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. BATTER ENDING

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt on jerkin_off @ dreamwidth!
> 
> Added to the Adventures in Offland series, because the Batter ending here is concluded in item #6 in the first fic of this series.
> 
> Mood music to this: Winter Waltz by Jim Brickman.

“Don’t do that. I need you in order to purify this world.”

They couldn’t move. Transfixed, paralysed with something other than fear—betrayal? No, not really. They had known for a while now that the Batter was… _different_ : his two pairs of bright red eyes told them that. Confusion? Possibly. Whatever was coming out of their best friend was certainly something they didn’t expect. Heartbreak? Likely. Watching the Batter writhe around, biting his lips with jagged teeth and tearing skin, drawing blood, was just as difficult as feeling it themselves. Or perhaps, in some odd way, they were expecting this, really, something wrong was _bound_ to happen, one way or another. They had somehow guessed this was going to happen the moment that burnt Elsen kept screaming for help as they assisted the Batter in purifying them. How could Zacharie not say anything about this? He was in the monorail as well, he heard the screaming—yet all the Player really knew from the masked merchant was that there was absolutely no way to return home now, not at the rate things were going.

Conflicted, the Player stood where they were, trapped between the Judge’s hard stare, vibrant red eyes slitting dangerously at them, waiting, _judging_. At their other side, the Batter held his hand out to them in a silent plea, as black smoke escaped tearing skin, blood seeping out from flesh parting at unseen seams in his arms and fingers, and all visible areas of his once-pale skin, and now tainted deep red with his own blood.

“Please.” The Batter repeated, his voice getting harsher, throatier, as monstrous nails tore out from his nail bed, yet not a single noise escaped the Batter’s mouth. He had to stay strong, now more than ever; he needed to prove to his Player that he could _protect_ them from anything, no matter what happens, so long as they helped him continue on in his quest. He can’t think of anything other than the Player staying by his side—he would rather _die_ than see them betray him at this most crucial moment in his journey.

The Player’s eyes shifted from the Batter to the Judge, teeth biting lips and hands balling into fists, shaking uncontrollably in nervousness, and oh, how the Batter hated seeing his Player like this—so indecisive, so _unsure_. It wasn’t like them to be like this. He needed to change that.

“I need you,” he said, with his last human tongue and throat as a red-hot tongue thrust out from the bowels of his body, shooting out from his mouth like blood.

The Player drew a tiny gasp and stepped back.

“Do you see?” the Judge spoke up, “He is a monster. We have to stop him at all costs.”

The Player fell silent, staring down at the Batter, who had now dropped to his knees, shaking uncontrollably as his body began to convulse, blood flying in spurts and ribbons as the dark body ripped out of its former shell.

“Please, Player!”

“… I’m sorry,” they spoke up, “But he’s my Batter and I, his Player.” Calmly, they approached him, placing their now-tiny hands as compared to the Batter’s growing body on the man’s shoulder. “I’ve promised to him, long ago, when I started this game that we are a _team_.” Chuckling self-depreciatingly, they pulled the Batter’s cap off his head and put it on. “Monster and human.” They murmured, planting a small, chaste kiss on the snout that had begun to form on the Batter’s face, the sickening crunching of bone breaking and reshaping jarring them from their calmness, but only for a moment, as they felt growing, bloody hands rest on their sides, squeezing reassuringly. The Player calmed down, but only just, as the Batter drew to his new full height and picked up his bat.

“Puppet and puppeteer,” the Judge sneered. “So it has come to this; know I can perfectly harm you just as badly as I will with the Batter. I will not hold back now, Player.”

“I know.” They grinned, “Then Batter and I here will just have to work harder.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ending of this chapter is in the first fic of this series, item #6.


	2. JUDGE ENDING

“ _Please, Player_!”

No, no, no. Everything was so… _wrong_. The trust they had put into the Batter was all for… for _this_? More blood, more tears, more _death_? The Player took a step back, _away_ from the beast that became of the Batter, whimpering as they shook their head. As much as they had loved the Batter, no matter how close they grew in the time they spent together, all the blood they had helped the Batter spill… it wasn’t worth it.

Feeling bile crawl up their throat, the Player shuffled to the Judge’s side, tears obscuring their eyesight and blurring the black-and-white world into watery rainbows as they shook their head slowly, hugging their arms around them almost protectively.

“I’m… so, so sorry…” they choked out, and the hurt look in the Batter’s eyes sent wave upon wave of guilt crashing over them, making their head spin and their eyesight swim in and out of focus as they came to a stop behind the Judge. It was a feeble attempt to cover themselves from the Batter’s eyes, but the Player knew that no wall could hide that look from them, not ever. “I… I trusted you, I believed you, Batter.” They choked out, barely feeling the Judge press up against their ankles comfortingly. “I had really believed that… that,” they choked on their tears, and the Batter made a move forward, blindly desperate to wipe his Player’s tears away, but the Judge snarled at him, hissing with his teeth bared protectively, and the monster backed away, more hurt than ever before. And the Player knew that, and so they finally just gave up and let their knees buckle to the ground, landing hard on the white floor with a loud thud, as the Player’s hands came up to cover their face. “I believed that what we were doing was _right_ ,” they laughed sadly, tears still freely flowing down their face, “I really, really thought we were doing this world a favour.”

 _We are!_ The Batter’s voice in the Player’s mind insisted, but all they could hear was the growling that came from the Batter’s parted jaws.

“Re-remember the Elsens the first time we met them in Zone 1? They looked so amazed, so _happy_ you could get rid of the spectres,” they hiccupped, “That was the first time I put my trust in you, the very first time.” The Player wiped their cheeks with their hands and kept their glance away from the Batter, but they perfectly knew how he was looking at them—with pain in his eyes just as bad as the feeling tearing the Player’s heart apart. “And since then, it grew. You became my best friend, and then I loved you, I really did. All because of how much I had trusted you.”

“But now you have realised you’ve been lied to,” the Judge spoke up, glaring at the Batter, who glared back at him, growling menacingly. “You are left to reap the seed of sorrow you have sowed.”

“Judge…” the Player whispered, shaking their head, but the Judge purred affectionately and licked their hand, shaking his dainty little head.

“I will take care of this. Rest your eyes, weary one.”

But the Player couldn’t—not when the fight between the two was brutal. Flesh tearing at nails or sharp teeth, small gasps of pain and agony, sickening cracks and loud thuds came of their battle, each fighter bodily throwing each other across the room and back, viciously destroying each other as hard as they could.

In the sidelines, the Player sat quietly, still, an empty feeling eating away at their chest as they watched the Batter and the Judge fight to the death.

Suddenly the Batter was bodily thrown in the Player’s direction, skidding to a halt right before their knees, and their eyes widened as the wounded, _tired_ Batter looked up at them from under the tattered cover of his hat.

 _I loved you_. His voice whispered in their head, and tears blurred the Player’s vision when they saw rivers of blood running down the Batter’s monstrous eyes. He was crying, too. _And I still do. I will not ever harm a single hair of yours, no matter what the Judge will say of me._

“B-Batter,” the Player choked out, as the Judge let out a hiss of anger from his side of the room, rushing towards them to pull the Batter away from the Player.

 _I’m not frightened of death. It will be as if I was purified, anyway._ A clawed finger weakly reached up to the Player’s cheek and gingerly caught a teardrop that had rolled onto it, smearing his blood on their cheek. _For you, I will gladly die; for I would rather die your friend rather than your enemy._

The Judge clamped his jaws onto the Batter’s beaten legs and lifted him up with great strength, slamming him up and down, from the ceiling to the floor, and back, until he grew tired, and dropped the monster heavily, panting from exertion.

“My dear Player, are you alright?”

A teardrop had mixed with the blood as it rolled down the Player’s cheek, as they numbly got up, and staggered to the Batter’s side, falling down to their knees again, slipping their hand into the Batter’s clawed ones.

“I still am your friend.” They whispered, as they saw the Batter take his last few breaths of life. “I’ll forever be your friend.”

_I know, and thank you. I’m just so sorry for lying to y_

The Batter took his final breath as a teardrop landed on his cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> omfg i'm crying so much help


End file.
